#makansiangdubes: Gaining Foreigns’ Affections through Localized Contents

Abstract

The effect of Japan nation branding in Indonesia is strong. Indonesian youths and teenagers are attracted to tokusatsu, manga, anime, figures, brands, and J-Pop which make them easily accept and are familiar with pop-culture and kawaii culture from Japan. The development of Japanese creative industries and internet media also reinforce Japanese cultural impacts in Indonesia, especially because Indonesian youths love to spend their pastime accessing social media. Taking this as a good opportunity, Masafumi Ishii, the Japanese Ambassador for Indonesia tries to present the images of Japanese to be closer and accepted by Indonesian youths through #makansiangdubes. Utilizing Instagram @jpnambsindonesia as the platform, Ishii frequently posts his pictures enjoying Indonesian dishes he is eating while making kawaii or cute poses for his followers, holding Japanese and Indonesian cultural arts and brands, and doing his official activities as ambassador. This attracts his followers whose majority are teenagers and youngsters to give likes and leave positive comments to express how they adore his kawaii traits. The methodology adopted signification concepts and semiotics analysis on contents. The analysis on comments explains how the images affect audience’s affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Among all comments, affections comprise the majority.